Articles on Social Sign-On, Authentication, and How to Log-on Using Facebook, Twitter, Google, & LinkedIn ID's and Passwords:

Socialsign-on is a great solution to the problem that many people face: the need to have a unique user name and password for each web site that they use.

But once customers (either actual or potential) are logged into your site, that’s when the real work begins. That work is engaging those customers, keeping them engaged, and converting clicks into purchases.

So you’ve been looking at adding socialsign-on to your website. You’ve become acquainted with the social sign-on landscape, you’re familiar with the advantages of using social sign-on, and you’re ready to delve a little deeper into the subject.

One of the goals for a brand or firm using social media is to drive conversions. You want to turn those visits and clicks to sales. More importantly, you want those customers to keep coming back. Achieving that is definitely not easy.

Facebook recently got into trouble when it was revealed that they were behind a Google smear campaign. Essentially, Facebook hired a PR firm to get journalists and bloggers to write negative press about Google’s privacy policies and practices. The tactic backfired when some enterprising journalists did some research and found out that Facebook was behind the campaign.

Social Sign-On is a form of authentication that allows end-users to register and login to websites with existing social identities such as their Facebook, Google or Twitter accounts. With 75% of consumers inclined to leave websites that require registration, Social Sign-On remedies many common conversion headaches and has been quickly embraced. Additionally, it broadens reach, increases engagement and tap into valuable social APIs.

Social sign-on is an authentication method available on many websites where a person uses their social networking account login credentials as identification to "sign on" to other web sites. In laymen's terms, it's what allows you to login to other sites using your Facebook ID and Password (or Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo, etc). For a web site owner or administrator, there are many questions and concerns that need to be addressed about this relatively new technology. Below is a list of questions to ask before you decide to implement a social sign-on solution for your web site:

Supply and demand! The Internet’s proven to be a social juggernaut in the past few years, with countless places for users to discuss and share ideas. An emerging business dilemma is that there are so many new sites each week that some people are getting tired of creating new accounts for them all. The demand for a single sign-on future is huge, and many competitors are scrambling to offer the desired supply of tools to meet users’ needs.

Facebook Connect allows users to log in and sign up for third-party apps, games, websites, and services using only their Facebook account. This is essentially the end result of a set of APIs and the Open Graph protocol created by the social network for third-party developers and users to integrate and share content and communities.

Social Sign On (“SSO”) enables website and mobile application users to authenticate using their existing social network credentials from providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. Most users have noticed this trend on sites like Answers.com or Fox News. Here are some of the benefits of social sign-on: